Page 17 of The Umbra King

Kordie raised her arms. “On three. One. Two. THREE!”

Keith and Rory took off side by side. They stayed close together, not wanting to lose sight of the other, and Rory grinned as she pulled ahead. Not by much, but enough. She heard the wolf growl beside her, and she laughed as the wind whipped through her ponytail.

Sweat trickled down her forehead as the treehouse came into sight, and she pulled up, touched the tree trunk, and ran back. She could hear Keith on her heels and pushed faster, but before long, the dark wolf met her stride for stride. As they approached the treeline, Keith pulled ahead and crossed their imaginary finish line seconds before her.

Rory slowed and fell to the grass, breathing hard. Keith’s snout appeared in her line of sight with a lupine smile, and she swatted his nose away. “No need to gloat, you mutt.”

Keith shiftedand held out his hand. “Don’t be a spoilsport. I told you I was faster.”

She sat up and grabbed his hand. “You barely beat me.”

Keith tugged Rory’s hair. “You’re too competitive for your own good.”

“Good job,” Dume said, clapping him on the shoulder.

Kordie placed her hand on her chest in mock surprise. “Did you give Keith a compliment? Is the realm ending?”

Dume frowned. “I give credit where credit is due.”

“You owe me a drink,” Keith said, pointing to Rory. He wasn’t even out of breath.

“How about a cold beer?” she asked, poking him in the side. “But not at Whiplash. I need a break from that place.”

“Birdie’s?” Kordie suggested. “They have the best potato sticks.”

Potato sticks were exactly as they sounded—potatoes cut into small sticks and fried. They were Kordie’s biggest weakness.

Keith picked a leaf from his hair and flicked it to the ground. “I’m in.”

“Me too,” Dume said. “We need to hurry before it gets crowded.”

They all tromped across the grassy field toward Keith’s truck. He was the only one of them with a vehicle because his parents were bothMuninand lived in theMunincompound outside of the city. Everyone else walked where they needed to go or took public transport.

When they were all piled in, Rory leaned her head back on the seat. “I’m beat.”

Keith pushed the button on his truck, making it roar to life before reaching over to pat her knee. “Perk up, or I’ll shift and lick your face.”

The group sataround a tall table at Birdie’s and ordered drinks from the server. Birdie’s was a small sports bar near the park with good food and cheap drinks.

“Where were you the other night?” Keith asked her with his eyes glued to the arrowball game on the ES behind her. “You weren’t at work.”

Rory flicked her eyes to Dume, and he looked back knowingly. “I called in and went to Wonder.”

“Was he any good?” Kordie smirked.

“For aether’s sake,” Dume mumbled, but Keith’s attention was on Rory.

“He was a virgin,” she muttered, and the others paused before they burst out laughing. “Shut up.”

“Did he at least stick it in the right hole?” Keith asked through his laugh.

Rory lightly banged her head on the table. “I had to show him where my clit was.”

A deep laugh rumbled from Dume’s chest, and Rory lifted her head as she twisted her mouth to the side to hold in her own. Despite his shy nature, Dume wasn’t a timid virgin, and when they were in their late teens, he’d asked Rory what he was supposed to do. She’d drawn a diagram, and he studied it like it was the most important test of his life.

“At what point did you realize it?” Kordie asked, taking her drink from the server.

“As soon as he was inside me, he looked like he’d discovered gold,” she groaned. “It wasn’t that bad once I told him what to do until he came in three seconds.”

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